Miracle GM Seymour under spotlight

Toronto newspaper profiles team's creator of wacky promotions

By Glenn Miller
Fort Myers News Press

Fort Myers Miracle assistant general manager Andrew Seymour recently received international attention. Well, maybe not as much as the Spice Girls reunion or Paris Hilton's turn as a jailbird.

Toronto (as in Canada) Globe and Mail columnist Alan Maki wrote a piece on Seymour last month after the Miracle's "Don't Be a Bengal, Be a Good Citizen Night."

Seymour is a Toronto native. Hence, the interest by the Globe and Mail, which bills itself as Canada's national newspaper. Seymour has been with the Miracle for 10 years and is a key creative force behind many of its wacky promotions.

Here's a fine line about Seymour from Maki's column: "... Has been having as much fun as possible without answering to police officers."

Seymour got a kick out of the write-up in his hometown newspaper.

"It was fun and it just drives to expand the (Miracle) name and drive a little interest in your Web site," Seymour said. "It would be neat if people back in Toronto were wearing a Miracle cap."

Power surge

In 1995, a 20-year-old Miracle outfielder named Torii Hunter hit seven homers in 113 games. He'll turn 32 on Wednesday. Hunter has hit 19 homers in 90 games this year for the Minnesota Twins. In 2001, a 20-year-old Miracle first baseman named Justin Morneau hit four homers in 53 games. He's 26. Morneau has 25 homers in 87 games for the Twins.

On the road

The Miracle is in a stretch during which they have only two home games in 11 days. They're in Vero Beach for a four-game series and then will head to Sarasota for two games before returning home for contests Saturday and Sunday against Sarasota. Then they will board a bus and head to Lakeland for games next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last and first

The Miracle lead the Florida State League with a 3.05 team ERA. They've also allowed a league-low 37 homers. They're last in the FSL in batting average, at .229. The next-lowest team batting average is .250. The Miracle are also last in the league in home runs, with 38. Two teams have more than twice as many homers as the Miracle. They're also last in on-base percentage, at .304. Not surprisingly, given the low batting average and on-base percentage, they're last in runs scored, with 691.